Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

We recently had an entertainment center installed in our living room. The unit was put together and installed by Closets By Design located at 277 Mallory Station Road, #107, Franklin, TN.

Our contract stated we would have a white unit installed and of the various shades of white offered (from their color chips) by their designer, we chose the whitest (or brightest) white. The designer had color chips with her and repeatedly called the color "bright" white and "snow" white. At no point did she ever state only the doors would be this color and the doors would be applied to a vanilla base with a brownish counter top.

The unit installed in my home is four shades of white and is unsatisfactory. We have made several attempts to rectify this situation with the owners, Mark and Sandra. Mark states our contract says "white" unit and he feels we have a white unit.

The installer told me this is a common problem with color matching and white was one of the easier colors they install (for color matching). He stated the dark cabinets are even more of a problem. He mentioned some customers have complained to him about color matching as he installed units.

The owners state they have never had a complaint regarding color matching.

Mark (the owner) came to my house and explained this (why my entertainment system is four shades of white): The unit pieces are obtained from different manufacturers and put together to make the cabinets.

This information is from Mark:

Color One: The base cabinet is the same cabinet they install for all shades of white. It is an off-white, vanilla color.

Color Two: The color strip (about one-inch) that faces the shelves is made by a different manufacturer and applied to the cabinets. It is a lighter shade of white than the unit they face.

Color Three: The cabinet top. Mark states it is only millimeters thick and can "appear" off white. In actuality, it is almost brown.

Color Four: We chose snow, bright white (whatever color the designer was calling it), for the doors. They are very white and sitting in front of, on top of, these other three colors.

Mark's comments about light reflecting on my units causing the appearance of different shades is out of line. He is the one who explained to me how the units are put together from different manufacturers.

I have a $6001 entertainment center installed on either side of my fireplace that is an embarrassment and the owners refuse assistance. There may be little I can do at this point other than live with these units that I wouldn't put in a garage (because of the color mis-match problem) but I feel that others should be made aware of the problem this company has with color matching before they spend thousands of dollars as we did.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.